Questions and Answers

Greetings. Blessings for all of you, my dear friends, blessed is this evening. I am prepared to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

QUESTION: Since the world is getting more and more populated, I would like to know where all these additional souls come from?

ANSWER: They come from the Spirit World, as all souls do from various spheres. There is such a vast world in the universe, with so many beings waiting to start the cycle of incarnations, and so many waiting to continue it. There are those who are to begin, those who are in the middle, and those who are at the end of their earth incarnations. The reason for more human beings now than ever before is that, as progress continues in the entire creation, accelerated conditions prevail. More souls can begin their earth cycle and more souls can come back sooner, that is, they need less time in the Spirit World between incarnations. This accounts for the many souls being born. When development takes place within an individual soul, the soul generates more strength, which remains in the reservoir of the soul; therefore, the entity is ready to start earth life after a shorter period of time in the beyond. Does that answer your question?

QUESTION: Yes, in a way. From generation to generation there seems to be many more people on this earth. And I wanted to know where they come from.

ANSWER: Perhaps you will get a clearer picture if I remind you of the lectures on the Creation and the Fall. Ever since the Fall, a vast number of beings have to go through their development in order to come back into light. The earth sphere is a very important part of this development. Whenever they are not incarnated, they live in various spheres in the Spirit World. As progress continues, more and more beings from these spiritual realms in various stages of development come to the earth sphere: those who have never been incarnated before, as well as those who have. Due to increased strength, they can come back after a shorter period of time in the Spirit World. This is a cycle that will last for a while; then a new cycle may come when fewer beings will come to earth for a while. It is not that the spirits who are born now have been especially created for that purpose. They have been created before, they just appear on this earth sphere now because they are ready for it. They are either ready to start incarnation, or ready to resume it faster. This may create certain earth problems, but these very problems can be the stepping stones for further development.

QUESTION: You are talking about progress but this applies only to a few, doesn’t it? It seems that crime and terrible things go on more than ever.

ANSWER: This is all relative. Of course, the forces of darkness are still very strong on the earth sphere. But that is certainly not an indication that spiritual progress has not taken place. These forces of darkness do exist, of course, but they do not exist more than in earlier times, quite the contrary. The fact that you have more crime is understandable if you consider that there are more people and therefore more difficult conditions in certain respects, and more people incarnated from lower spheres. But, from the overall view, progress is tremendous. If you had the same number of human beings in former times, the cruelty, crime and wickedness on this earth sphere would have been so much greater that the human race would have found it almost impossible to exist. Exactly because of the spiritual progress, it has become possible for so many beings from lower spheres to go through earth development now. You only see a very limited aspect, as it appears on earth, thus ignoring all these factors.

QUESTION: Why are there more births now in the colored races or in Asia and China, and in all the backward countries where people are so undeveloped, than in the western hemisphere?

ANSWER: Because it is exactly in those conditions that certain souls can find the conditions more favorable for their present incarnation and development — not favorable from a point of view of earthly comfort, but favorable for what they need at this time in order to grow and develop. All this is neither coincidence nor arbitrary; it happens all according to a very wonderful law which constantly regulates itself, balancing itself. As I said before, you on this earth sphere cannot see the balance and harmonization that take place constantly. In fact, it appears to you as the very opposite.

Imagine that you want to build a beautiful house where an old and dilapidated one is standing now. First you have to tear down the old building and clear the foundations before you can build the beautiful new structure. In order to do that, the time has to be ripe. You have to have the necessary material, all the essentials you need for the new structure, before you can set out to do the work. A person not knowing all these circumstances, just seeing a building being torn down, may think this is destruction, chaos and imbalance. Only with the knowledge of the complete picture will he realize that the momentary destruction is an integral part of construction. This is what constantly takes place in creation, in the entire universe, as an effect of the Fall. It also takes place in the individual soul.

In personal development, you often have to go through the process of destroying something: the old and obsolete and illusory. This will give you the sense of things getting worse, feeling more depressed, more confused. In reality it is part of the growth that can take place after this painful procedure. By the same token, when souls are incarnated into conditions more difficult than other conditions, it may seem to you that this disadvantage is unjust and unbalanced and therefore a step backward in development. But in the overall picture it is not at all that way. Souls incarnated into these circumstances are, for the most part, spirits who find through these very difficulties the conditions most adequate for their present stage of development, affording them the greatest chance to grow out of the particular inner obstacles they have to face. There are also very evolved souls — the minority — born into these conditions. They come to help spread love and truth. They do not only set an example, but also have a particular strength with which they can influence general conditions. They are, each in their own way, leaders of humankind. They are not necessarily famous.

Whatever appears like a negative aspect, a disadvantage, indicating lack of progress, is often just the opposite. But you could only grasp this if you had the overall view, knowing what is at stake from the point of view of creation. The temporary earthly disadvantages would be recognized for what they are, namely stepping stones to real progress, the progress of the soul, not of the temporary human personality.

QUESTION: In the previous question the word “backward countries” was used, implying that we are forward. Does it seem that way to you?

ANSWER: Not in all respects. In some respects, yes. But “backward” would certainly apply to earthly human advantages. Spiritually speaking, it is hard to generalize. There are so many aspects of the human personality. In most cases you cannot compare the development of one individual with another. One person may be more developed in one way, the other person in another way. Of course, there also exist definite and crass cases of difference in development. But in many cases this is not so. The same applies to groups, races and nationalities.

QUESTION: Is the total number of spirits incarnated and discarnated finite, and if so, does that number remain constant or are there additions and subtractions?

ANSWER: Certainly no destruction of any created spirit exists, therefore there can be no subtraction. But the creation of new spirits is going on.

QUESTION: Constantly?

ANSWER: Indeed.

QUESTION: What is the average time between incarnations?

ANSWER: That depends. Incidentally, this question was answered some time ago. The average is about between 300 and 500 years. But there are many, many exceptions. There are cases where a soul is reincarnated after thirty years. There are others who wait 1,000 years. It cannot be said that the shorter or the longer waiting period indicates greater or lesser development. There is no fixed rule on that. Each case is a separate instance, with entirely different problems, conflicts, assets, liabilities and considerations.

QUESTION: Is it necessary in the development of the soul to appear and be reincarnated on more than one planet?

ANSWER: Yes. Only the terminology may be debatable, for life on other planets may or may not be called an incarnation. The world of matter, as you know it on earth, does not exist in the same form in other realms.

QUESTION: Can you tell us the psychological reasons of kleptomania?

ANSWER: Before I attempt to answer this question, I want to emphasize that all generalizations should be taken with great care. You should abstain from applying my answer to each case you may hear about. Nothing of that sort can ever be generalized. So many personal aspects, individual influences and reactions play a part. Even if this answer may be part of the setup, it may still be a half-truth applied to any individual case, for many personal characteristics have to be taken into consideration which change the entire picture. But I may shed some light, as far as it can be generalized, on this question.

In many cases, a person becomes a kleptomaniac out of a misunderstood, falsely interpreted current of “I want to have. When I have, I am happy.” In other words, the rulership principle I discussed recently manifests in this particular way. It may be that the child was constantly frustrated in getting what it desired, most particularly objects, perhaps. This frustration, in addition to certain other personality disturbances strengthening this current, in addition to the temperament and character of the person in question, results in a constant compulsive and senseless action of acquiring objects. This action is almost like an automatism which the person cannot understand. Such people need to re-experience the relevant emotions of their childhood. When they feel how much it hurt not to get what they desired and how they suppressed the hurt, making the compulsive need all the stronger, they will begin to understand their compulsive actions, and by that process, they will cease repeating them. Once the unconscious aim is understood, the consciousness will see that enacting the compulsion does not bring happiness; quite the contrary. By seeing that the unconscious aim is based on a wrong conclusion, they will be cured of this disease, really cured — not superficially by restraining the action, while the feelings continue in that direction. That I do not call a cure.

QUESTION: The description you gave would give me the answer to a question of compulsive acquisitiveness on the part of one who already has abundance, and, on the other hand, stealing on the part of one who lacks. But a kleptomaniac is one who steals without need.

ANSWER: Exactly. It is a symbolic outer act. The other cases may have a similar origin, but other factors play a role, so the symptoms change. People who steal because they are in need may be in an altogether different category. Entirely different currents and reactions may bring them to do that. Compulsive acquisitiveness in those who have what they need may have a similar origin, but not necessarily. There, the desire to be approved may play a much greater part. In this case, one acquires things of actual material value through which one may get some power and admiration — or so one hopes. Whereas in kleptomania, the acquisition of things has nothing to do with actual material value with which to impress others. It is completely irrational. It outpictures symbolically the petrified impression in the soul, that “only by having what the world denies me, taking it myself, can I become happy.” These objects may either be the same as, or in some way remind the person by association of, objects the baby wanted to play with or to hold but was not allowed to. It is the very compulsiveness of acquiring things that have absolutely no value which indicates that it is a re-enactment of frustrated childhood experience. Such a person unconsciously wants to make up for it for the rest of his or her life. In both cases you mention, some similar trend may also exist, but a more rational personality converts it into a less irrational, although perhaps more unethical act.

QUESTION: Where is it combined with elements of dishonesty?

ANSWER: When you examine the soul the way you do on this path, you inevitably find that all deviations, so-called neuroses and sicknesses are in one form or another always a dishonesty. Because it is untruth, unreality, wanting to get something for nothing, not paying the price. If a person wants to receive love without wishing to invest in the risk of loving on his or her part, such a person is dishonest. In that sense, everything that causes emotional problems is dishonest. Only humans draw a sharp borderline between the outer and obvious dishonesty and the subtle inner one.

QUESTION: I was wondering whether it is according to spiritual law that a human being who tries very hard to develop spiritually is subject to ebbs and flows. There are times when the work goes much better, and then it seems like standing still. Is it natural to have to go through these phases?

ANSWER: This applies to everyone. It cannot be said that this fluctuation is according to law in the sense you seem to mean. It is not given by the Spirit World, it is a result of the soul condition.

QUESTION: Then I would not have to worry about it?

ANSWER: It is not a question of worry. One should not worry about anything. One should understand the reason. The reason is that at certain times the negative aspects are stronger. At other times they recede and the positive aspects come to the fore. Understanding this very simple and important fact enables you to summon the strength not to succumb to the negative periods but to make the best of them. That is the ideal time to find the wrong conclusions, and reactions, to analyze them, to make them conscious, and not to wait until the good times come. Because in the so-called good times or favorable times, when the negative aspects fade into the background, you are much less aware of emotions indicating wrong conclusions. Therefore you have less of a chance to bring them out into the light. The proper attitude would be when the “low tide” comes to make the best of it. Without compulsion and haste, without pressure, simply observe your emotions and see what they mean. Translate them from vague feelings into concrete language. Then you do the most productive thing. It is not a question of worrying about whether or not such fluctuation is exceptional. All human beings have inner problems and imperfections, images and wrong concepts. They manifest at times very strongly. Those who are ignorant of this will simply have to go through such periods without getting maximum benefit out of them, while you, my friends, can really make such times a major contribution for inner growth and liberation, by following through what I constantly advise in this respect.

QUESTION: But when you feel low, how can you put together your reactions?

ANSWER: Speak out your most irrational and seemingly senseless feelings. Pronounce what you feel, why you feel low, what you want, why you would desire such and such. Let out whatever comes to mind, without censorship. That will make you aware of what the inner person, your psyche, thinks, wants and feels. This is often contrary to your outer personality and conscious awareness. And this is important. You do not need a particular strength for this. All you need is to focus your attention to what is in you, view it, and put it into words. It takes simply a little training. In the so-called image sessions it could be easily done. As many of my friends have already experienced, the negative occasions will prove to be the most productive.

QUESTION: In the last lecture you stated that the imperfections of another person cannot harm us. How about the imperfections of a teaching, a doctrine, a wrong method being practiced by, let us say, a physician or an analyst? If we are not intellectually so developed or so learned as to judge rightly, we seek an authority because we are weak and in need of help. And the wrong help can make us mentally or physically even more distorted.

ANSWER: No outer influence can ever make you more distorted. This is one of the most flagrant illusions on the earth plane. Distortions can only be brought to the fore from within. With a good method, a teaching of truth, they are brought to the fore with a direct view as to what is distortion and what is truth. With a teaching or method of half-truth, this often happens in a more roundabout way. An outer influence may temporarily fortify a wrong concept, just as other influences in life constantly seem to do. But this lasts only as long as the person desires to run away from himself. Whenever people decide to face themselves in truth and honesty, no teaching, method or influence can encourage wrong inner concepts any longer. In other words, the more people tend to run away from themselves, the more will they be drawn to influences which apparently foster tendencies of escape. Or they will pick out especially those aspects of the influence which encourage turning away from the root of the problems, while other parts of the very same teaching, which may help them to turn into the right direction, will be overlooked.

If it were true that any outer influence can really harm you, life would be impossible. That would be such a hazard, so arbitrary and such an injustice that you would consequently have to believe in a chaotic and godless world. You would be constantly prone to injuries you cannot do anything about. If you think things through to the very end, it is inconceivable to believe in a Creator of love and justice and at the same time assume that ignorance and imperfection on the part of other people can harm you. I know that it is not easy for most of you to truly understand how you are not harmed by the influence of others. But if your spirit and your soul are to become really healthy and free, the understanding of this truth is essential for you. Without this understanding you stand nowhere, and God will never be a reality for you.

This principle applies also to the physical aspect of your question, although you may find my answer even more difficult to understand. Let me say only this: if you truly want to get well, to recuperate from an illness, you will find the physician who can help you, or you will choose to accept part of the advice of one physician and reject another part. You will interpret the advice in the right way. Lack of intellectual understanding and inability to weigh, judge and discriminate are the very result of a desire to escape from and to deceive oneself.

As to philosophies, religions, teachings and methods of self-development, there are none on this earth which are one hundred percent truth, perfection, and without error, since you are living on this imperfect earth plane and dealing at all times with the imperfections of people. By the same token, you will hardly ever find a philosophy which contains no truth whatsoever. It is possible that a person remains with a teaching of relatively little truth, yet will get the maximum of truth out of it because he or she will assimilate what he receives in the right manner. On the other hand, people may follow a teaching of relatively more truth than many another, but they will get a minimum out of it because their inner self does not want to accept it. In such a case, they will constantly misinterpret truth; and when life and their own disinclination to face themselves catch up with them, they may then blame the actual deviation from truth on that particular philosophy and hold it responsible for their failure and unhappiness. At first such a person embraces this authority unquestioningly. Then he or she goes to the other extreme.

If a consciously chosen teacher or philosophy or physician could harm you as an adult person, how much more could a parent or a teacher harm you in your youth! A child is hardly able to discriminate, yet it is subject to influences which may be quite far removed from truth. The impressionability of a child is infinitely greater than that of any adult, and therefore the child is greatly influenced for his or her whole life by certain occurrences and conditions in childhood and youth. Hence, it certainly appears as though the parents had harmed the child, nevertheless, in reality it is not so. The universe would be supremely unjust if this were so. In any successful self-search, the personality will have to recognize that he has blamed one or both parents for his unhappiness, even though this blame may have been unconscious. The next step must inevitably be to gain the insight of no longer putting the blame where it does not belong, no matter how much the parents were actually at fault. I might say that this is one of the most important criteria in growth, health and freedom. When this has been accomplished, the constant repetition of this unhappy pattern will cease and the proper proportion will prevail in judging other people, principles or whatever.

The solution must always lie with the individual. Whenever an entity is ready to face himself, thereby assuming true self-responsibility, he or she will increasingly be drawn into spheres where one is enabled to do just that, in spite of the inevitable flaws in perfection and truth that exist anywhere on earth. As long as an entity is not ready to do this, or only partly ready — which also happens quite often — he or she will constantly encounter damaging influences. These damaging influences have no effect on the person who is ready to grow up inwardly. The very reluctance to assume adulthood and self-responsibility makes a person prey to the fear of harmful influences from outside.

Once people are well established on the road to maturity and self-responsibility in the inner and deeper sense — which might come long after a person is actually on this path — they will learn gradually to discriminate without exaggeration. They will cease going from one extreme to another. They will cease fearing forces, influences, people and happenings outside themselves, in the belief that they can harm them. They will be open to the good and the true from wherever it may come, even from a person who may in other respects be more ignorant, and, similarly, may reject certain things coming from people who represent authority. It will no longer matter who said it, the criterion will be what was said. Subjective coloring, due to positive or negative emotions, will cease; in its stead you will possess real objectivity that never permits viewing anything as black or white. True self-responsibility is the only safeguard and can come only from yourself, from your inner desire to forfeit dependency. Dependency often manifests in rebellion and complete rejection of that which also contains much benefit. You know that. A really independent person need not be afraid of bad influences. The independent person cannot be influenced. Your security will lie in the calm, serene deliberation, be it accepting or rejecting. You may not wish to reject the whole because you reject a part; and you may not wish to accept all of it, because you accept a good part of it.

Let me stress that this state of maturity does not have to be fully reached in order to be “safe.” It is sufficient that you are on the road toward it and understand the principle. If safety could only be found in a teaching, or method, or influence that you know can never err, you could never attain true independence. You would always remain a cripple in the pseudo-safety of utter reliance upon another authority. This is why you cannot find an unblurred manifestation of truth on this earth. Your choice lies only in finding it to a greater or lesser extent. The sooner you realize the inevitability of deviation from truth anywhere on earth, and that this fact can never harm you in the deepest and widest and most real sense, the sooner you will find freedom, independence, and the real and healthy relationship to the eternal Creator of love and justice.

QUESTION: You said in your last lecture, “You are helpless because you make yourself that way by trying to shift responsibility from yourself.” But a child cannot assume self-responsibility.

ANSWER: It is understandable why you would think that it is unjust for a child to be born into conditions so imperfect that it is subject to influences it cannot handle properly. You can understand this only if you realize that one life is but a small part of a long chain. The child brings along unsolved problems which can find solution in the very conditions that bring them to the fore. When a person grows up, these problems can be solved, but hardly ever during the period of childhood. This is the reason for life, my friends. If a problem does not exist in the soul of a child, the same conditions that accelerate conflicts in another child will not create any disturbance. You can observe this again and again.

QUESTION: Is it not a fact that responsibility can be undertaken only after you have solved these problems?

ANSWER: You can also put it the other way around: By assuming self-responsibility, you solve the problems.

QUESTION: We are all responsible for what happens to us. I can understand that very well if we deal with one person, but sometimes two or three or even more people are involved. Then it is very hard to find who is responsible.

ANSWER: It does not make the slightest bit of difference whether you deal with one person or a hundred. As long as self-responsibility appears to be dependent on the number of people you have to deal with, the truth of this principle has not been understood. In fact, every human being is constantly dependent — in the apparent and manifest way — on a score of people, some of whom you have never even seen. Government and many other groups of people seem to influence your life. If you think this through, you must see that you could constantly say, “If thus and thus were different, my life would take another form.” All measures, laws and regulations apparently affect you, and over these you have no influence whatsoever. All these conditions are apparently true. They are part of the manifest world of matter. But in reality you are not dependent and influenced. As I pointed out before, even in national or mass disasters, some people are badly affected, others are not. In such cases, there are more than a dozen people who seem to decide your fate. What comes forth from your soul will come back to you. It will affect others you are directly or indirectly dealing with or dependent on. As I said before in another connection, certain levels of your subconscious will affect the corresponding levels of other people. And if more than one person is involved, it must even itself out, if I may express myself in this way. This means that even though the problems, assets and liabilities, unconscious destructive or constructive desires of everyone concerned, may differ vastly, the outcome must be according to this universal psychological law and as such it must work properly for everyone concerned.

QUESTION: But since there is some negativity in all the other people, would it not have to affect the one person?

ANSWER: It cannot affect you if it does not strike some corresponding note in your own soul. Negative does not necessarily mean evil or wicked. It can be self-destructive, life-defeating; it can be guilt or fear. But the negative in you must exist, otherwise the negative in all the other twelve people could not come to you. Then it would not work itself out against you. Then a positive and healthy reaction would come out of the people in question, or the negative decision would turn out to be positive for you. You cannot try to understand this principle by applying it to the number of people you are apparently dependent on. You must tackle it from the other side, that is, by analyzing your innermost emotions in each individual case; finding those desires that may run contrary to your conscious desire, or other currents and conflicting reactions in you that will help you understand the incident. This alone will give you the understanding of the principle. Is this clear to you, my friends?

QUESTION: Yes, except in the case of a child and a disaster. Are there within the child already these positive and negative forces which it projects and by which it is affected?

ANSWER: But of course. The child has brought its entire life plan, its cycle of incarnations into this life. Everything is engraved in its soul, what kind of life it is going to lead, its basic design, and also the duration of this life — which can sometimes be altered during a lifetime, but not always. Do you understand?

QUESTION: I understand you. But this brings up the question: If there is such predetermination…

ANSWER: It is not predetermination. I have to interrupt you here because the word predetermination puts an entirely wrong slant on the issue. What I say has nothing to do with what usually people think of as fate preordained by God who determines it that way.

The law of cause and effect is constantly at work and the individual himself or herself has set it in motion. Let us assume a person commits a crime through which he gets into difficulties. It is easy to see the connection between cause and effect in such a case. In more subtle, hidden and unconscious ways, the same thing holds true, only the person cannot connect cause and effect, unless and until he uncovers his unconscious motives, desires and conflicts. Then, as you all experience it, cause and effect become apparent. Before these connections are uncovered, you might call the effects of your inner causes fate. Any other label might serve the purpose. Thus you simply explain something away you do not understand. The same holds true from one incarnation to another and in relation to the duration of a lifetime and for certain occurrences outside your control in your present existence. It all operates within the same law of cause and effect. With the events outside your control you cannot draw the connection, but this is not even necessary for your self-understanding. For, if you are truly on the path, you will find certain hidden aspects of yourself that have at one time caused the cause, if I may put it this way, of the present effects. And that is sufficient to give you freedom from fear in the knowledge of a just world in which you shape your own fate. So it is not a question of preordainment or predetermination in the sense these words are usually understood. It is always a question of cause and effect, how you have unwittingly, unwillingly and ignorantly brought it about. When you understand that, the word “fate” will take on a completely different meaning for you, and even the word “karma.”

QUESTION: Is accidental death also brought about by one’s own causes?

ANSWER: Death must come to every human being at one time or another. The very fact that humanity has to go through death and birth and death and birth and so on and on, is the result of many basic misconceptions in the human race. Whether death comes one way or another depends on the individual case.

QUESTION: What exactly is grace?

ANSWER: I can see that it would be quite difficult for you to understand the concept of grace after hearing from me constantly that the law of cause and effect has to take its course. Although this is true, grace nevertheless exists. It is not easy to explain and very commonly misunderstood. It may make it easier if I briefly mention first what grace is not, but what is often taken to mean grace. It is often thought that when grace is extended, a person does not have to encounter difficulties he or she ordinarily would have to go through. In other words, the law of cause and effect is thereby broken. People think if God extends grace, He eliminates trouble for you. Of course, this is an entirely wrong concept. In reality grace is the Plan of Salvation with everything therein to enable the fallen spirits to return. If divine law would not operate in such a way as to make evil defeat itself, the fallen spirits could never return. This is the basic grace. The help of the spirits who did not fall, or of those who have evolved, is further grace. Without this constant help, the return would be so much harder and longer, but this does not mean that the law of cause and effect is broken.

Grace is the coming of Jesus Christ. One Being has taken upon Himself such a tremendous task and such hardship He did not have to endure in order to open the doors, to show the way, to help accelerate development for all, by an act of supreme love as has never been witnessed on this earth before or since. If you reread the lecture I gave on this subject, this will become clearer to you.

Divine grace constantly happens where the spreading of light penetrates confusion and darkness in order to hasten the realization of the divine world. Let us say, for instance, that a nation is dominated by the forces of darkness because of the people’s ignorance and the outcropping of their negative currents. To come out of this darkness unassisted, without grace, would mean to go through so much hardship, destruction and tragedy. It would be unbearable. And it would take so much longer, so very, very much longer, than it does with grace. Grace may take many forms. It can happen through the incarnation of a few strong and highly developed people who do not have to take on certain tasks, but who do so in love and brotherhood, to help.

By the same token, each one of you can also be an instrument of grace. If, by your development, you come to understand more profoundly, and your power and capacity to love truly unfolds — not by force and compulsion, but in reality — you have an effect on others, and therefore on the world, such as you cannot imagine. You are a spreader of light and truth by the very act of your search into your own soul. Your innermost self unfolds, freeing itself of all the layers and masks, and thus you are capable of affecting the innermost self of other people. You penetrate right through their superimposed layers and masks. That is the case, as I explained before. Hence, every good and right act, most of all the act of self-unfoldment, makes you an instrument of grace. The power of good and love is infinitely stronger than the power of evil and ignorance. Others do not only learn from your example, but they are strongly affected in their subconscious by your emanation. You may think that it means nothing; it cannot be grace or guidance or anything divine because you did it. But any human being can be an instrument of grace or of any other divine manifestation. There are constant chain reactions, not only as far as the negative currents in the human soul are concerned, as you all have had plenty of opportunity to verify on your path, but also as far as divine manifestations are concerned. They come from a source and that source is divine grace. That it finally takes effect through various chains of instruments of grace — also human instruments — does not alter the fact that it originally comes from the divine source. I realize that this is a hard subject to explain and to understand.

QUESTION: Have those who receive it merited it in some way?

ANSWER: Again this indicates the wrong concept. Grace is not extended to a few chosen ones and withheld from others. Grace is all around you. If you want it, you can partake of it. If you do not want it, if you desire in some corner of your being to remain in blindness, grace will not be accessible to you. But those who want it will constantly be affected by it. It is there for everyone alike. Grace is there as the product of the divine world and you can all get it if you know how to turn toward it.

I will leave you with blessings, with strength, and with my love for each and every one of you. May you all find the strength and the happiness that self-search and self-understanding means. Be blessed, my dear ones, be in peace, be in God!

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For years I’ve been doing the Pathwork by reading the lectures on my own and putting what I’ve read into practice. For me, Pathwork Online, was the first encounter with others who are doing what I do—internationally! I’ve been able to gain some knowledge about my real Self and am able to notice when the ego speaks and when my real Self speaks. This is of inestimable value to me. I feel more enlightened.

A positive concept of the universe as a benign force and benign fate for man, the freedom and fearlessness to love, and a healthy balance between activity and passivity — all these form a comprehensive whole. . . .

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